Saturday, November 14, 2015

Day 112 - Outback Day 3: Uluru Sunrise, Kata Tjuta Hike, Uluru Cultural Walk and Uluru Sunset

This morning we had to get up even earlier: 3:45 AM! We drove all together to a spot where we could see both Uluru and Kata Tjuta. How magical the first sunbeams were! As soon as the sun was completely out, our group was the first to hit the road, wisely advised by our guide to be the first at the loo at Kata Tjuta.
 


The point for our early morning wake-ups is clearly not only the beauty of the sunrise. After 11 AM here at Kata Tjuta, or even 9 AM at Kings Canyon, most trails are closed due to the hot temperatures.

Because I didn't feel to well yesterday night, I didn't do the full round of 7km through the sun, but went back the same way with some other persons, to only walk 5km, and partly in the shadow. Had a good talk about Ireland and so on, because we have a group of five young girls from Ireland with us, of whom three have been working in Australia currently.

 
We were finished by 9 AM and the sun was already burning. After all had finished hiking in Kata Tjuta, we drove back to Uluru to do the base walk portion we had to leave out yesterday. This ca. 2 km stretch took us about an hour in the midday heat. Our guide explained the different uses of various caves at the bottom of Uluru, we saw petroglyphs, and we sweated. One cave was a kitchen place, one a teaching place (with petroglyphs) and one a meeting place for men only. All cave ceilings were black due to fires that were not lit for warming ;-), but to cook or to fight the flies. The petroglyphs and paintings were made with ochre (red, yellow), coal (black) or eucalyptus bark (white).

 







This was how our afternoon looked like: having burgers (meat again), standing in a dirt devil (!), going into the pool (really cold but goooooood), getting wet by three cannonball dives (thanks, Ross) and having some free time to take pictures at the Ayers Rock resort, the place where we actually stayed. We stayed however not in the luxury hotel and not in the self-contained accommodation units and not even at the regular (campervan) campground, but at the group camp, far off, where the shuttle bus only drives to on request. We drove to the village and indulged ourselves an ice cream, yum. In the meantime, one of our mates went skydiving over Uluru and had a great time ;-)
 

 
In the evening we then took a short walk with our camping chairs onto a little hill near our camp, and watched the sunset at Uluru once again. Every time it's different, every sunset has its own magical feeling. And I discovered "Apple Cider" ;-) For dinner we had Spaghetti Bolognese, and had to prepare our breakfast and lunch for the next day because we would be driving in the bus all day. It would be a loooong day... But I slept awesome for the first time (still in a tent).
 


 

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